{"id":112120,"date":"2026-03-09T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/?p=112120"},"modified":"2026-03-09T14:01:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:01:44","slug":"20260309-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20260309-01\/?p=112120","title":{"rendered":"The fine print giveth and the bold print taketh away: The countdown timer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some time ago, I was purchasing online tickets to an event. When I got to the end of the checkout flow, I got this:<\/p>\n<div id=\"p20260309_head\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"border: solid 1px currentcolor; padding: 1em;\">\n<p>Your seats will be held for only a limited time. If you do not complete your transaction in time, your seats will be released.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 150%;\">Time remaining: <span style=\"position: relative;\"><!--\n       --><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 1s   0s linear p20260309-h;\">3<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s   1s linear p20260309-h;\">2<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  61s linear p20260309-h;\">1<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: relative; opacity: 0%; animation: 0s 121s forwards linear p20260309-h;\">0<!--\n--><\/span><!--\n--><\/span>:<span style=\"position: relative;\"><!--\n       --><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  0s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">00<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  1s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">59<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  2s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">58<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  3s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">57<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  4s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">56<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  5s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">55<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  6s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">54<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  7s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">53<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  8s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">52<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s  9s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">51<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 10s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">50<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 11s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">49<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 12s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">48<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 13s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">47<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 14s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">46<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 15s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">45<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 16s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">44<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 17s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">43<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 18s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">42<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 19s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">41<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 20s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">40<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 21s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">39<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 22s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">38<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 23s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">37<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 24s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">36<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 25s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">35<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 26s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">34<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 27s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">33<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 28s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">32<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 29s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">31<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 30s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">30<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 31s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">29<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 32s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">28<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 33s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">27<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 34s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">26<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 35s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">25<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 36s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">24<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 37s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">23<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 38s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">22<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 39s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">21<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 40s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">20<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 41s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">19<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 42s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">18<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 43s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">17<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 44s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">16<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 45s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">15<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 46s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">14<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 47s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">13<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 48s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">12<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 49s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">11<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 50s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">10<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 51s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">09<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 52s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">08<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 53s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">07<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 54s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">06<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 55s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">05<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 56s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">04<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 57s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">03<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 58s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">02<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: absolute; opacity: 0%; animation: 60s 59s 3 linear p20260309-ss;\">01<!--\n--><\/span><span style=\"position: relative; opacity: 0%; animation: 0s 180s forwards linear p20260309-h;\">00\u00b9<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>You must accept the following terms to complete the purchase.<\/p>\n<p>\u2610 I agree to the <u>Purchase Terms<\/u><br \/>\n\u2610 I agree to the <u>Terms and Conditions<\/u><br \/>\n\u2610 I agree to the <u>Payment Terms<\/u><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border: solid 1px currentcolor; padding: 1ex; opacity: 50%;\">Complete purchase<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The countdown timer gives me only three minutes to read the Purchase Terms, Terms and Conditions (which in turn incorporates by reference the Privacy Policy and Supplemental Terms), and Payment Terms. Given that these documents add up to several thousand words, I think I have a case for claiming that the terms are unenforceable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"opacity: 0%; animation: 0s 180s forwards linear p20260309-h;\">\u00b9 I wonder how many people stuck around to watch the clock count all the way down. There is no Easter Egg, sorry.<\/p>\n<p><script>\nwindow.addEventListener(\"load\", function() {\n  \/\/ break up \"style\" to prevent wordpress from injecting random junk\n  document.getElementById(\"p20260309_head\").innerHTML =\n`<s` + `tyle>\n@keyframes p20260309-h { from { opacity: 100%; } to { opacity: 100%; } }\n@keyframes p20260309-ss { from { opacity: 100%; } 1.67% { opacity: 100%; } 1.68% { opacity: 0%; } }\n<\/s` + `tyle>`;\n});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Think fast, no pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103,137],"class_list":["post-112120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-non-computer","tag-reading-the-fine-print"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>Think fast, no pressure.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112130,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112120\/revisions\/112130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}